Six from Naked Wines

Got a six pack of samples through from innovative new-ish retailer Naked Wines. It’s headed up by the entrepreneurial Rowan Gormley, who was the founder of Virgin Wines.

The good news? The buying seems to be very good: these are all delicious examples of their type.

The less-good news? The pricing. Even though they are good examples of their type, these wines are significantly more expensive than I’d have predicted, based on how much Naked Wines will presumably have paid for them. The direct buying model means that these are all effectively Naked Wines ‘own label’, so a price comparison is not possible. But I wouldn’t recommend any of these wines, tasty as they are, at these prices.

[added later: apparently, 92% of customers get a 33% cash-back, which makes the prices more reasonable, and with which I'd be happy to recommend these wines]

Agree with Ian. The dishonesty in the pricing model makes me very reluctant to buy from that outfit. If they had something I really, really wanted, then I would, but I guess I’m simply not their target demographic.

UK pricing of French wines is usually just a little cheaper than in Canada, where I live. I discovered Picpoul de Pinet a couple of years ago and loved it – and I gotta say GBP10 doesn’t seem too bad. I just checked on one of my notes from 2008 & I paid C$14.95 (GBP9.50). It’s an interesting & underrated white, so push the boat out & drop that extra 50p!

(I bought Domaine Des Lauriers, but I doubt there’s much variation in producer pricing for Picpoul)

And heck, with a 33% discount, it’d be well worth it! Even the other, more overpriced ones.

Frankly who cares about false “reference pricing” (as it’s known in retail) if you then get a “discount”. The entire outlet mall model is built on this premise. Admittedly the fact that these are “own label” wines might give pause (ie, they might be the leftovers/bulk crap but from a good area), but Jaimie’s tasted & given the thumbs up.

Apparently the 33% discount given to their ‘Angels’ is based on subscription – the ‘Angels’ pay a monthly subscription which I think is £20, and in return get 33% off the list price of the wine. The subscription fee goes to supporting small winemakers from around the world and giving them a route to market. Be interested to see just how many of their suppliers are small struggling wineries in need of financial support…. interesting business model I guess, and seems to have a certain section of the UK wine drinking public firmly on board.

Hi, I am one of “the small struggling wineries in need of financial support” mentioned above, and will be coming online at Naked Wines in the near future. I think the Naked Wines model is a great help to wineries like mine because 1) they pick up the wine Ex Cellar or FOB very near the cellar and deal with all the transport and logistics 2) they provide a way of interacting with my final clients. As far as prices are concerned, they SHOULD be very competitive as they have cut all the middle-men out and so should pass on savings to customers, no? The price paid to the producer is mutually agreed between NW and the producer and I certainly hope that both parties are content.
I think the comments above: “…resort to such spurious price-loading & discounting” and “The dishonesty in the pricing model…” are out of order and/or the authors are misinformed, as the NW pricing policy is clearly and transparently explained on their website!

Really good explanation there Fabio, and I’m glad to hear that Naked provide such valuable support to your business. I was only questioning whether the model was good for the producer or not, and from your experience it seems nothing but positive, which is pleasing.

Skippy, I can only hope that that will be the case, when I start working with them.
In theory, the model is good for the producer (ie dealing with all the transport logistics that small wineries hate) and I like their committment to Social Media and facilitating contact between producer and consumer. I hope it all works out in practice too, and so far I’m happy and optimistic, having gotten nothing but good vibes from Rowan and his team.

As a customer, I’m left scratching my head as to whether the right price is the nominal ‘full price’ or the 33% off price?

Price discounting is an ongoing issue in the UK market, with plenty of customers only buying wines (or other products) ‘on offer’, likewise many shops are pricing wines high, only to reduce down ‘on offer’. As customers we learn to doubt the ‘normal full price’ being anything other than a tool to make the reduced price more attractive. As Jamie said, the difference between the prices is the difference between him recommending or not recommending the wines.

Fabio
I will say the encouragment of contact between customer and winery is an interesting and potentially very positive approach. The only similar web contact I’ve seen in the past has been on infrequent ‘meet the winemaker’ events on wine forums. I’m sure Jamie will be following that side of things with interest!
regards
Ian